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| This may not be the proper site for my ? but I couldn't find another one!
We have our dogs on a strict diet to lose weight but they get SO hungry between their small plate of dogfood (low cal for adult dogs: "Iams". We have been giving them snacks of raw carrots & raw cabbage which they love but was wondering if they can get too much of it.. esp. the raw carrots/vitamin? I even thought of planting a row of carrots just for them in the garden this year as they now recognize the word 'carrot' & go crazy beggging! |
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- Posted by marlingardener 8b (browns@rgf-tx.com) on Thu, Feb 25, 10 at 14:59
| I wouldn't think that treats of vegetables would hurt your dogs, but why not ask your vet? See if they like green beans or squash to vary their "snacks". |
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- Posted by doninalaska 3 (My Page) on Thu, Feb 25, 10 at 18:55
| I don't think they can get too many carrots if they are otherwise healthy. I would think a lot of cabbage could create an odorous environment, however. Once the dogs get a taste of good carrots, you will have to fence in your garden, for the dogs will eat ALL your carrots and you may not have any for yourself. Our dog will dig up all our carrots if we let her, but she has a definite preference for the sweeter carrots, such as Napoli and Mokum and leaves the Danvers till last. You may also notice a larger stool volume since, although they like the taste, their digestive tract is too short to completely digest raw veggies. |
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| Congratulations for raising dogs that will eat their vegetables! When my Buster was aging and fat, the vet suggested replacing his biscuits with carrots. Buster, ever the gentleman, would take the carrot in his lips, turn his head over his shoulder, and gently drop it on the floor! You wouldn't want the dog to eat carrots all day long. But if they get carrots a few times a day as treats I suspect that's ok. Keep an eye on their poop -- if it's not right, the diet's not right! And I totally agree, use green beans, broccoli, other veggies to keep it balanced. You're doing a good thing, and it will extend your friends' lives! --Johanna |
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| That should be fine. You can also add tomatoes, fennel root, squash and apples, my dogs favorite treats. |
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| Dogs and cats are carnivores by nature. Beware of high fiber/carbs in their diets; it will mess up their digestive tracts. Vegetables should be cooked before giving to dogs. Cats should not be feed vegetables what so ever. Just because and animal will eat/crave it doesn’t mean it is good for them—look at some human food we love but shouldn’t eat! Dogs love/crave chocolate but would you give it to them? Commercial foods list the fiber content as less than 1.0 to 1.5%--it should be 0.25 to 0.5% at most. Many of these feeds main ingredient is corn or such--these are highly processed to lower the fiber content--NOT especially good for any cat/dog to eat. Never have observed a cat/dog in a wheat field grazing, or picking corn or soybeans let a lone screening/winnowing flax seed. Just common sense! We feed natural raw meat/bone finely ground from chicken, rabbits, turkey adding eggs before serving. Vitamin supplements especially designed for cats and another for dogs for their needs are different are given daily. The reason your dogs/cats get fat is the carbohydrates are way too high in the commercial feeds. Cats catch small rodents for natural food--dogs are slightly omnivorous and will eat nuts, berries to some degree. Carrots are high in fiber/carbs--should be used cooked as an occasional treat. Due to the fact their bodies do not store protein as fat-only carobs/fats can be stored as fat in any living mammal. As suggested above consult a vet that is a nutritional Biochemist (my field-nutritional Biochemist, PhD.) for the real info on animal nutrition. Most vets are like most human doctors only learn what the feed/medicine manufactures tell them--it is not necessarily the truth--especially when money is involved! |
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| Thanks everyone! I finally found the pet site/forum here but am getting so much info. from this site also! Are there any natural bones that dogs can safely chew on? We NEVER give chicken or pork bones to the pets but was wondering if a huge beef bone would be safe? Now we just buy the rawhide or artificial bones x the pet store. They love to chew & with the small Min-Pins it helps clean their teeth to chew on something. The Shepherd can knaw through those 'bones' in nothing flat!
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- Posted by flowersnhens Maine 4 (My Page) on Sun, Feb 28, 10 at 21:21
| My dogs also love Carrots AND Apples.....and yes, TOO MANY carrots CAN give them diarhea.!! so watch out for that. =) |
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- Posted by laturcotte1 (My Page) on Wed, Mar 3, 10 at 8:41
| My 4 mini schnauzers are prone to pancreatitis. We have one that is diabetic also. There food staple is royal canine low fat canned food and raw carrots only. Every morning and every evening they have 1/4 can food and I cut in half 4 raw baby carrots for each. Sophie is a carrot freak she loves them. Their other favorite veggies are asparagus, green beans, broccoli. We found caggage, corn to gassy. At 7 pm they get a greenie. At thanksgiving the splurge and have turkey for dinner which they LOVE. My vet definately approves. i have one that has lost a few teeth (they are all 9 yo) and has some difficulty but chews on the side with all her teeth. |
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| Just bought a big bag of carrots at Sam's for 50 cents a pound ... good price for the doggy snacks! Our 7 1/2 lb. Min-Pin mom has to have them sliced pretty thin as she has such a small mouth but the male & the pup can chew on the really big ones &it last longer than if I cut them up for them; the Shepherd gets a whole carrot. Odd, our son's yellow Lab who comes to visit won't touch those 'orange things'!!! Our neighbor just spent a small $$ fortune on 'SPECIAL' cans of dog food for his poodle & she wouldn't take a bite of it ... & neither would ours when he gave the cans to us!! If this special diet food is so good for the pets what is missing that they won't touch it? They prefer the Iams blue bag of smaller kibbles for adult dog weight maintenance. |
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